


imaginary waves could never drown you

by sandyk



Series: with the sun in my eyes Surprise! [7]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Acceptance, F/M, Pepper Potts Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Pepperony - Freeform, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23754016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/pseuds/sandyk
Summary: Pepper is pregnant, and trying to move on from the idea that Peter will come around to his new family situation.(Necessary to read the previous installments.)
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts
Series: with the sun in my eyes Surprise! [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1701469
Comments: 2
Kudos: 48
Collections: Trope Bingo: Round Fourteen





	imaginary waves could never drown you

**Author's Note:**

> Not mine, no profit garnered. For the trope bingo square rites of passage. Title from a camp's bear on the beach. Thanks A!!

Pepper was pregnant. She didn't think it was possible. She and Tony had never really tried but they'd also never really tried not to get pregnant. She just assumed it would never happen. 

The timing could not have been worse. Why had both of their reproductive systems decided to work five months into their tenuous, delicate, and precarious shared custody of Peter? 

She sighed. She told Tony. She said, "I feel like, like, the timing here -"

Tony shook his head. "You know, we're, there was literally never a time when we could have made the right steps and done the right dance that would make the kid love us perfectly. That's not how life works. Or parenting. Or shared parenting. We do our best not to fuck things up and we love him and we have hope. As stupid as that sounds coming from me, but we have hope."

"When did you get so eloquent?" She glared at him.

"I've been practicing for the big moment when my boy comes to me for advice or I just have a nice moment with him," Tony said. "Then it comes flowing out like I haven't practiced a lot in the mirror."

"You really like looking in the mirror," Pepper said. 

"We're having another kid," Tony said, grinning. 

"We are," she said. 

Pepper decided that for once Tony was right. She kept waiting for Peter to finish grading them, give them their A and it wasn't going to happen. She went into the discussion expecting Peter to be happy for them and congratulate them. 

"That's awesome," Peter said, smiling. "That's great."

Pepper was having a pretty run of the mill pregnancy. She had some morning sickness, some cravings, a little of all the changes and symptoms her very sympathetic OBGYN laid out. She was freaking out more than Tony. She really hated that part. "It's wrong to put a tracker under the skin of a baby," she said firmly. 

"Is it?" Tony sounded casual. "I can make it really small, we can monitor to make sure it doesn't impact bone growth or whatever, make sure we always know where the kid is. Wait, are we talking about the child to be or the big one? I'm in favor of both."

"No, you're not, because you would never actually ask Peter if you could lojack him. I know you wouldn't do it without telling him," she said. "But we don't need the baby's consent, do we?"

"Maybe we could get the baby a little anklet," Tony said. "But we can revisit."

"I just, I don't want to repeat, you know."

Tony said, "My shrink said we can't catastrophize. Subcutaneous implants wouldn't have saved Danny."

"We would have found him," Pepper said. "Sorry, I'm being ridiculous."

"I thought about it, too," Tony said. "Let's see where we are when the kid comes out."

"So go ahead with the design," Pepper said. 

Pepper's own shrink said something similar but she elected to ignore it. 

She did take Tony and her shrink's advice and stop waiting to be graded by Peter. He was her boy. No more tests. 

She knocked on his door and waited for him to say it was okay to come in. After he did, she came in and really looked at the room. She said, "You should decorate a little. Or tell me what you want and I'll get it."

"Then you put it in all four of my rooms?" He was at least smiling as he said it. 

"I can do that in only two rooms, and put something else in the other two," Pepper said. 

"You put four different pictures that my, my birth mother did," Peter said. He looked at the one hanging in this room. "And all these different pictures of me as a kid. You put a lot of effort into all of this, thanks."

"You're welcome," Pepper said. She assumed he appreciated that she'd also put pictures of the Parkers in every one of his rooms, too. But he hadn't added anything. She could see his backpack leaning against the bed. "You know, we can buy clothes for each room, too. You don't have to bring clothes."

Peter shrugged. "Okay."

"You really can put up pictures or posters, whatever you want," Pepper said. "This is your home, too. Your many homes."

Peter nodded and said, "Okay, got it." Pepper started to leave. Peter said, "But you don't have to take anything down. I like the paintings and pictures."

"Good," Pepper said. "We have all of them. The paintings your birth mother did. Some are in storage, and a number of them are loaned out to museums. I have, um, a catalogue and a paper this young man did for his Master's on her work. I really love her work."

Peter said, "I like the ones you put in my room. It would be nice to see the catalogue."

"I will do that," Pepper said. "And please put up a poster. Or print out a picture from your phone. Your room shouldn't look like I decorated it." She smiled in case he got angry at her. 

He didn't. He laughed. He said, "Got it."

She knew she and Tony both constantly scrutinized Peter's face for signs of Danny. Of who he was when he was theirs. She didn't see it, usually. Sometimes when he smiled or laughed. Once when he was frustrated and the set of his face looked just like Danny when he was trying to figure out something. 

But he was Peter. He was the sixteen year old in front of them. As her shrink reminded her and Pepper knew. 

He did, finally, put up something on his walls. They were mostly photos, ones Peter had taken or his Uncle Ben. He also pinned up a picture of Ned and MJ in all his rooms. Pepper noticed in the Manhattan mansion where they were the most frequently, there was a second picture of just MJ. 

"I feel like, like Peter's starting to come around," Pepper said. "Please don't suddenly be wise."

"I can be very irrational," Tony said. Peter was with May. She'd given him another of his mother's paintings to hang at home. "But he's not going to come around. There's no around to come to."

"I know that intellectually but you can't make me believe it. At some point he's going to love us."

Tony made one of his skeptical faces. She said, "He doesn't love us yet but he will."

"He loves us," Tony said. "He's a very loving person. He's not going to come around, we're not going to wear him down, it's just this. We share custody. This is it for the rest of time or until he's eighteen and he decides he doesn't want us."

"He won't," Pepper said. "He at least likes us."

"He loves us, we're lovable. Maybe we should try more obvious gestures to win his love. Getting him drunk won't work, the kid's not into that. I could build him another spider suit, but honestly, it's going to be hard to top the one I already did. He likes that MJ girl, should we pay her to go out with him? That can't possibly go wrong." Tony grinned. 

Then Tony said, "Pep, I know it's horrible and wrong. We thought he was dead and we were both really messed up, me more than you which is understandable since I started out so much more screwed up. And then we got him back which is unreal. So here we are, outside reality. I think, in that case, I'm better prepared for it, what with all the aliens and wormholes and magic."

"I don't do unreality," Pepper said. 

"It's awful," Tony said. "But you're the best person I know. You'll get your feet under you."

"I hate this metaphor, Tony. I also hate that you're better at this than me. I like being better at the emotional part."

Tony smiled, smug as ever. 

A week later, Pepper was sitting in the living room while Peter did homework on his laptop. He had his headphones on, he could be doing anything. He had a very expressive face and he was concentrating very hard. Then Peter looked at her and smiled. He took out his headphones. "Stop staring."

"Sorry," Pepper said. "I wasn't staring. It's pregnancy brain, I just look somewhere." She grinned. She got up and sat down at the piano bench. She tapped the keys. "Do you remember, no. Did you ever play piano?"

Peter shook his head. "Nope." He did get up and sit next to her. "I guess I did when I was little."

"You did," Pepper said. "Tony taught you. It was, his mother played piano. Quite well. She taught him. He had a whole, he made his first circuit board when he was four, if you haven't heard. He never really let you near the lab."

"But the piano was okay," Peter said. He hit a key. And another. "Was I good at it?"

"Of course you were. You could have designed a circuit board, too. If Tony weren't convinced that doing so was a sign of being a horrible father," Pepper said. 

Peter hit a few more keys. "Is that what it is?"

"Do you want to take lessons?"

Peter shook his head. "No, I have too much stuff as it is." 

"Just say something in front of Tony next time he walks in here. He'd be very happy to show you again."

Peter hit a few more keys. "Okay, I might." They sat in companionable silence. Then Peter said, "I think you guys both stare at me like you're going to see, I'm not that kid, I don't remember."

"I know," Pepper said. "I know, I know you're not grading us, I know." She touched his shoulder. "You were a really cute kid."

"Why would I grade you?" Peter hit discordant notes. "I'm not grading anyone."

"I know, I think that way, your actions don't make me think that," Pepper said. He hadn't shrugged off her hand so she left it there.

"Okay," Peter said. "Okay." He hit a few more notes. "Don't worry so much."

"About you? About the other kid to be? Or Tony? No can do," she said. "But I'll try."


End file.
